ROPOT

The ROPOT (acronym standing for Revision Opinion POll and Testing) applications can be filled with questions that students are then asked to answer. Finally, the System saves their answers and evaluates them automatically.

The process of getting a ROPOT application ready for being used usually consists of two stages:

1. Preparation of a question set - entering questions the students are expected to answer
2. ROPOT description configuration - specifying who is allowed to answer the questions and when as well as the rules governing the students' work; this step also involves a specification of the question set to be used in the application

ROPOT applications can be used as the following:

Exercises

These may consist of numerous questions designed as a material for students to work with outside their classes (e.g. various drills, exercises whose aim is to make sure they have understood what was discussed in lessons, revision exercises, etc.). After saving their answers, the students can have the keys to these displayed. They may open and work with this kind of material any time they want to.

PC-based Test

This kind of test is particularly suitable for being submitted to students in a computer hall. It usually has a time limit imposed on it. The students' scores are saved into a notebook. The test can be configured the way that prevents the key to it from being displayed to those sitting for it.

PC-Based Test Demo

Since this represents a mock test whose main objective is to teach students to work in the PC-based test mode, it is advisable to use it during a term, i.e. prior to the examination period, when students have enough time to learn to work with it. The students' scores are not saved in any other application.

Text (accompanied by other materials) or Opinion Poll

This mode is convenient for creating questions and interlacing them with texts. Thus it can be utilized for designing interactive teaching materials, questionnaires, and opinion poll forms. The order of questions and answers to these never changes.

Scannable Test (multiple choice)

This mode is usually used for designing a test that is to be printed out and submitted to students in a "paper" form. Once the students' answer sheets are scanned and their contents recognized, the students' scores are uploaded into a notebook. A copy of each of the sheets is saved and stored (for checking purposes) in every student's Retrieval Box.

Scanning Handwritten Text and Scores

This feature allows a teacher to scan his/her students' answer sheets (filled with their handwritten text), which he/she has previously marked manually. Subsequently, the scores written down by the teacher get uploaded into a notebook and the students can find their marked sheets in their Retrieval Box.

First of all, you should create a question set and then specify how you want your ROPOT application to work (i.e. specify the time during which you want your students to be allowed to work with it, whether they should be allowed to browse its key or not, etc.) using its ROPOT description section. It is the very description that enables the students to work with the application, not the presence of the question set!
To preview your application, you might want to use the following path:

After being taken to the page, click on 'answer questions' situated under the name of the ROPOT application whose questions you want to browse. You can also use the same page to access your students' answers later on (click on the answers provided reference to do so).

To get the idea of what your ROPOT application looks like to your students, go to it and try to answer the questions it contains using the following path:

To see which of the questions you have answered correctly and which not, click on the view reference (after saving your answers). This will take you to the page marking all the correctly answered questions green and the incorrectly answered ones red. However, the questions are marked the aforementioned way only if the application has been configured to display the correct answers.

The page should also list the total score awarded for the test.

To access your students' answers, please use the following path:

Using the aforementioned path, you will be taken to the page listing your students' names with references situated below these. Clicking on a student's name will display a list of all his/her ROPOT-related operations (date and time he/she opened the application, saved his/her answers and browsed the questions).
Provided you only want to see the outcome of the student's last operation, click on the reference situated below his/her name.

The layout mentioned above is the default one. Using the references situated at the top of the page, you can, for instance, order the students by the date on which they saved their answers, you can have all the ROPOT-related operations they have performed displayed, etc.

Yes, there is. To browse the list of answers and information on how many times each of these has been selected, please use the following path:

The path takes you the page containing a table listing the individual answers and information on how many times these have been selected. The string of 'ra 3', for instance, says that it is the answer No. 3 (to the question of the :r type) that has been selected.

NB: The number indicates the position of the answer in the question set used, not its position in a certain student's test!

In some situations, it might be desirable to allow students to work with a ROPOT application repeatedly. This, for instance, applies to those where students answer ROPOT questions from their homes and the danger of something going wrong (their Internet connection dropping, computer freezing, etc.) is comparatively high.
You might also want to have an option of changing your test during the time your students are supposed to work with it and then ask them to take the test again.
Provided you want your student(s) to start working with your test from scratch for whatever reason, you should first discard the answers they have provided before. To do so, please use the following path:

The application allows you to discard all the students' answers or just those provided by individual students. The process of discarding your students' answers proves useful provided you have selected 'No ...' or 'Yes, they should, but it is always the same form (same questions) that should be offered to them' in the section (of the ROPOT description) titled 'Should students be allowed to access this ROPOT application repeatedly?'. That is, if the ROPOT application has been designed as an exercise (with the option 'Yes, they should and some other questions should be offered to them next time they work with the ROPOT application' selected), the exercise is always compiled from scratch and therefore there is no need to discard the students' answers.

After removing (discarding) your students' answers, you can still undo the operation using the following path:

It is advisable that you encourage your students to use the Save temporarily button once in a while in case there is a power outage or their connection drops. That is, if such a situation occurs, they can always return to their test without loosing the data they have hitherto entered into it.

First of all, it is crucial that you understand the way ROPOT applications work. Below you can find some basic operations you should get familiar with and perform to be able to solve the aforementioned problem.

After saving a ROPOT description, you should use the application the path to which is as follows:

After being taken to the page containing the form, fill it in and save it. This is the way your students will work with it, too. The ROPOT application allows you to access it (save your answers) either repeatedly or just once, depending on your ROPOT description settings. If the former is the case, what also matters is whether you have configured the application the way that makes it display the same questions each time a student opens it or whether the test is always compiled from some new questions.
The act of opening a blank form (test), i.e. compiling a test from a set of questions and putting them into a form allowing students to answer them, is called a session.
The sessions enable you to keep track of which of your students have worked with the ROPOT application and which of them have not. To go to the page listing the session-related information, please use the following path:

Provided you have selected the answer 'Yes, they should, but it is always the same form (same questions) that should be offered to them' to the question (situated in the ROPOT description section) 'Should students be allowed to access this ROPOT application repeatedly?', the reference 'work with the question form again' will take you to the same form (session record). Therefore, if you decide to edit your question set (e.g. edit its previously created questions, add some new ones to it, etc.) and then use the ROPOT application in its updated version, you should first remove all your previous sessions using the following path:

Nevertheless, provided you have selected the answer 'Yes, they should and some other questions should be offered to them next time they work with the ROPOT application' to the question 'Should students be allowed to access this ROPOT application repeatedly?', you need not remove your previous sessions as these do not prevent you from compiling new tests (exercises) from the newly edited questions.

The PC-based test represents a mode suitable for testing students in a computer hall. The students are requested to fill in forms made available to them by the Information System, which subsequently evaluates these. Provided the test requires the students to type their answers into text fields, which cannot be automatically assessed by the System, these become available to teachers for manual marking. The forms making up the PC-based test cannot be accessed prior to the start of test. They are usually made accessible by a teacher the moment his/her students are ready to work with them.
The PC-based test mode enables you to impose a time limit on the test (use the ROPOT description section to do so) either in the form of a period during which the application can be worked with or that of the total time allowed for the test. It is also possible to combine both the aforementioned ways.
Provided the time for which the students are allowed to work with the test elapses, their answers are saved automatically. Therefore, there is no need to worry about the answers of those who failed to save them using the Save button getting lost.

If you wish to use a ROPOT application for examination purposes, i.e. as a test whose score will determine the student's grade, it is advisable that you contact one of our e-technicians who will make sure that your ROPOT application has been configured correctly.

PC-based test demo

You can use this mode to enable your students to familiarize themselves with the PC-based test and its features before they sit for it. To prepare this mock test, download a demo question set (using the path below) and upload it into the testbank folder.

Next, create a ROPOT description for it selecting the PC-based test demo mode and name it, for instance, PC Mock Test. By selecting the mode, you also select its pre-sets which ensure that the ROPOT application cannot be worked with repeatedly, the students' scores are to be uploaded into a notebook, and the key to the test is not to be displayed to them.

Last but not least, it is advisable to send your students an e-mail informing them about how they should work with the ROPOT application. The e-mail may have, for instance, the following form:

Dear students,

to access the ROPOT section of the Information System, please use
the following path:

Personal Administration → Student → ROPOT (Revision, Opinion Poll and Testing) - e-learning.

Before taking the test I have informed you about before, you are strongly recommended
to familiarize yourself with the general features of ROPOT applications
and the way the questions they contain should be answered. You can do so by
clicking on 'select the ROPOT application - PC Mock Test'.
That is, the application you will be taken to, which serves the purpose
of a mock test, has the same form like the real test you are going to take.

After clicking on the reference mentioned above, click on 'I want to work
with the ROPOT application' and read through the red notification displayed.
As regards the test itself, select those of the answers you consider correct. Finally,
remember to click on 'Save'.
After saving your answers, you can find your score in a notebook the path to which
is as follows:

Personal Administration → Student → Information from Notebooks

This mock test works in the mode that does not display its key.

When answering questions making up the real test, please proceed the same way
as you did when working with the mock test.

Regards

...

ROPOT applications and Multiple Examination Dates

Provided you plan to use some ROPOT applications on multiple examination dates, you should first ask yourself the following questions:

Do I want to use the same test on several examination dates?
Do I want to prevent my students from accessing the key after they have completed the test?

The number of ROPOT applications to create depends on the extent to which you want to prevent your students from sharing their test questions and copying each other's answers. Below are the three most common alternatives:

• A different question set is designed for every examination date. The questions (taken from the question set) are blended, i.e. the order in which the questions (or even answers to these) are presented is unique for each test.
• There are, for instance, three different question sets each of which is used on several examination dates.
• There is only one question set.

Access to ROPOT applications:

A ROPOT application can be configured to open and close repeatedly at specified times. Thus, for instance, the application can be made accessible to students on Monday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and then from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. again. This configuration, however, has its drawbacks since those who took the test in the morning can access it in the afternoon again. Although they cannot change their answers any more, providing them with another opportunity to access the questions may turn out to have some undesirable consequences. A solution to the situation may be that of restricting access to the application to a certain part of local computer network (you might want to contact your local Computer Laboratory staff for assistance), which prevents users from entering it via the Internet.
However, if you cannot impose this restriction on your ROPOT application (test), but you still do not want your students to be able to return to it, you should create a separate ROPOT description for each examination date.

Security Measures

To find out the range of IP addresses of the computers in the hall your students will take the test in, please contact the technical support of the hall. Provided you want to restrict access to the test to only the computers in the hall, you should specify the range (addresses) in the ROPOT description (see the section titled 'On which computers should the students be allowed to work with the ROPOT application?').
You might also want to have every student report to you the address of his/her computer shortly before the test. He/she can find it on the page the path to which is as follows:

If you cannot, or do not want to, look for the IP addresses, here is another option you might want to consider:

• Have your students reserve slots on different examination dates (just as if they were going to sit for a regular examination). Make sure that you have specified the open for reservations from and open for reservations to dates and times the way that does not enable anyone to make his/her reservation during the time the ROPOT application (test) is under way since someone might open it and browse it then.
• In the ROPOT description section, go to the part titled 'The following users are authorized to work with the ROPOT application' and specify the examination date with the reservations of the students you want to enable to work with the test.
• At the start of the test session (prior to the test per se), check the names of the students present against the list of those who have made their reservation on the date and cancel the reservations of those who are absent using the Information System. This will prevent the latter from opening the test from another location.
• The Information System records the student's name and the IP address of the computer from which he/she accesses the application every time he/she opens the test. Therefore, if the student shares his/her password used for logging into the System with someone else and the latter opens the test (e.g. from another location), the System will display the student's name in the list of ROPOT-related files twice. Besides, it will also display two different IP addresses from which the test has been opened under the student's profile. Thus you will be able to reveal the unauthorized access to the application carried out by the other person later on.

Some Other Security Measures to Be Considered:

• The ROPOT description section also allows you to add to the left side of the test a wide column of a specified color.
  

  

  
  This column is intended for monitoring purposes as it allows the one supervising the test to make sure (from a long distance) that all the students work with the right ROPOT application (test). The color of the column can be changed to suit your personal preferences. You may also want to use different colors for, for instance, different examination dates.
• The ROPOT description section allows you to specify that you want to start the test with the browser window containing it maximized (so that it occupies the whole screen). This option can be deployed for monitoring purposes as well. However, you should bear in mind that students can resize their browser windows any time they see fit.
• You may also want to turn to your local Computer Laboratory staff and ask them to block access to the URLs (Internet addresses) other than is.muni.cz on the computers in the hall in which you plan to hold the test so that your students should not be able to consult any external sources of information.

Other Useful Information

The ROPOT applications are configured the way that prevents students from opening these more than once accidentally (by, for instance, double-clicking on a reference). That is, each time a student attempts to open a test, the application prompts him/her to confirm the operation. The same applies to the situation where a student attempts to open the test whose answers he/she has not saved yet in multiple browser tabs or windows.
The fact whether a student is allowed to open a test repeatedly or in multiple tabs (windows) depends on the ROPOT description settings (see the section 'Should students be allowed to access this ROPOT application repeatedly?').

Your students should be instructed to use the Save temporarily button in case there is, for instance, a power outage during the time they are working with the test. Provided your test spans several pages (depends on your ROPOT description settings again), the student's answers are saved automatically every time he/she moves from one page to another. The students can also save their answers by pressing the Enter key of their keyboard.
The students' answers, however, are evaluated and their scores calculated only when they have finished working with their tests and saved the final version of their answers (not when they only save their answers temporarily).

The System keeps track of all the operations performed (the time the ROPOT application (test) was opened, the time its answers were saved, the addresses of the computers it was accessed from, the answers selected (provided), etc.) and saves the information about these. Therefore, it is always possible to browse these records whenever any problems or doubts about someone not acting fair arise.

Provided a student saves his/her answers and thus gets his/her answers evaluated, in most situations he/she cannot return to the test any more. However, if you want to enable the student to re-enter the test, you first have to discard all his/her answers using the following path:

Provided this is the first time you have worked with a ROPOT application and/or you do not know how to configure it, feel free to contact us. We are ready to check your ROPOT settings and recommend you the configuration which is most suitable for your purpose. By contacting us, you may avoid some problems in the future.

Yes, there is. To browse your students' answers in the XML format, a form which you may subsequently utilize for further processing, please use the following path:

Download the file to your computer and pass it on to the person who is supposed to process the information.

The a_texty folder is only created in the situation where you design a ROPOT application requiring students to type their texts into text fields (text boxes). That is, the folder is used to store files containing the students' textual answers. These files bear no particular significance to a common user. They are only used by the applications searching for traces of plagiarism.

Yes, it is. A ROPOT application can also be run by unauthenticated users. All you have to do to make it accessible to these is to go to the ROPOT description section and grant the right to access it to 'anyone on the Internet' in the section titled 'The following users are authorized to work with the ROPOT application'. As a result, any person with a valid refence to the appropriate *.qref file (the one housing the application) will be able to access it from any location.

NB: The reference (address) mentioned above must start with "https://is.vsfs.cz/"!

When an unauthenticated user uses a ROPOT application, his/her identity cannot be verified. Therefore, each time he/she runs it, it is only a session-identifying number that is assigned to this event. The number (displayed in place of what would normally be the user's name and his/her personal identification number (učo)) gets stored in the browser memory in the form of a cookie allowing him/her to get his/her answers previously provided displayed at every subsequent session. However, this is only the case as long as the user's browser has cookies enabled and he/she runs the application from the same computer as before. If the user decides to work with the application from another computer, the System will not associate the new session with his/her previous ones.

Note: The ROPOT applications which do not require any authentication can be utilized for the purpose of conducting surveys and opinion polls. The scores or any other information obtained via these cannot be stored in a notebook.

You should proceed the same way as you do when looking for the information provided by any other ROPOT application, i.e. using the following path:

You can also access this data by clicking on the Difficulty level reference. This, however, only applies to the situations where the ROPOT application has been created under a certain course (not required since it may also be placed outside the Study Materials section, e.g. on the Document Server).

Yes, it is. To be able to do so, you should go to the section titled 'The following users are authorized to work with the ROPOT application' (can be found in the ROPOT description) and grant the right to work with the application to 'school applicants', i.e. those who have applied for a place at the school. Later on, these people can be identified by the identification number of their application.

Yes, there is. To export such a list, which also includes the times specifying when the users worked with the application, please use the following path:

The simple export option offers you the choice of either having the list displayed on your screen or downloading it in the Excel or Word formats. The list contains the names of all the people who have worked with the ROPOT application including those identified by their application identification numbers. The users who have not logged into the System are listed in the form of a number identifying their session.

The operation of simple export proves particularly useful when you need a record of unauthenticated users' scores or in the situations where the ROPOT application is not used under any course.